


Feels like sunshine

by whimsicalmuffinman



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Post-Canon, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:39:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22261195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalmuffinman/pseuds/whimsicalmuffinman
Summary: It had taken 14 years of chasing and climbing, but they were finally on level ground. They were finally equal, and it was everything he’d ever wanted and nothing at all, all at once and it was overwhelming.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 184





	Feels like sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> Written in a few hours as a raihan character study!

Raihan stared for a long moment, his mouth hanging open in disbelief at what had just happened, the shock still filtering through his system as the roar of applause around them nearly deafened him.

He had made a promise to himself, hadn’t he?

-_-_-

Raihan had known Leon for years -- in fact he’d gone through the whole gym challenge nearly neck and neck with him. For a while Raihan had resented… all of him. His pristine battle record and the way that he always seemed to charm people around him. The fact that some snot-nosed little ten year old had stolen his title out from under him (because everyone knew that a 12 year old, like Raihan, was  _ so _ much more grown up) and was now being lauded with praise and getting special attention from galar and the chairman. In fact, it seemed like the whole world had their eyes on Leon, and had left nothing for Raihan, a challenger who’d been dwarfed by the glory of the 10 year old champion, the youngest in Galar’s history.

His face was  _ everywhere _ , on posters and touring the galar countryside to sign autographs, on the television and being in advertisements. It was absolutely infuriating! That should have been him, Raihan! Raihan couldn’t help but want to be the center of attention in that way-- he’d always been that way. So he tried to not be bitter to the best of his ability, still being a child, and bided his time.

His opportunity came again a year later, battling his way up the ranks of the champion cup again and finally,  _ finally _ clawing his way back to Leon-- the awkward little kid who was still adjusting to being in the limelight and balancing it with school. The little kid who’s voice is still an almost falsetto while Raihan’s is cracking and breaking and he’s dealing with hormones and pent up anger. He’d spent all year training his team, working to make himself better so he could claim his rightful title as champion and finally he could make Leon realize that his victory had been a fluke.

The kid had the nerve to smile brightly at him and wave vigorously at him from across the pitch before being gently schooled back into professionalism by a reminder from chairman Rose. Raihan didn’t return the smile. He couldn’t, something petty wedged inside his head refusing to give Leon any of the special treatment that everyone else in Galar had decided he was worth. He still hadn’t proven himself to Raihan, because his win has been a fluke!

But one loss turned to two. Two to three, four, five. Raihan at some point had acknowledged that Leon was certainly not a fluke-- at least not in the sense that he’d thought. Raihan couldn’t say he could think of another ten-year-old he’d ever heard of who’d managed to take down a whole league and the champion and not lose the title soon after. Leon was clinging to his title steadfastly.

He was fifteen now, the champion was-- and Raihan seventeen. A teenager in his final year of schooling and staring down real life and supporting himself and learning how to try and balance a job and school and the challenge. It was terrifying, and this was what Raihan  _ knew _ best. This was his comfort and his constant, and one of these days that champion title would be his and he’d never have to worry about all of that other stuff again.

He’d been gutted when he’d lost even more spectacularly than he had the year before. His attention being divided so thinly had reflected on his team, and even though he’d reached Leon, the defeat had been humiliating.

Raihan left the pitch with his head down, trying to keep himself from showing the crowd the fat, wet tears that were threatening to spill down his cheeks out of frustration. It felt like he was watching his dreams crumble before him, and he’d just be left to do what, exactly? The idea of a traditional job seemed so dull to him, and the thought of just being a traveling trainer never appealed either. So what was he going to be if he didn’t get that title?

Raihan barely manages to smear the wetness from his face as he hears someone coming running up behind him and he feels the clap of a warm (if clammy) hand on the center of his back. He turns and sees Leon, and he expects that, like any 15 year old would, he’d be cocky and tease Raihan about his loss.

Instead, Leon asked Raihan to dinner to celebrate. Raihan had been so surprised at the offer that he couldn’t bring himself to be mad that Leon dragged him to a cheap fast food joint and sat across from him digging his fries into ketchup and shoveling them into his mouth gracelessly. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say or think.

For some reason, he realized, at some point the champion has swelled into this imposing figure in his mind-- someone untouchable and grand-- with a broad, puffed out chest and dramatic cape and heroic smile. This was not that champion-- this champion was a scrawny teenager with a voracious appetite, bouncing in his seat as he swung his legs back in forth in the tall booth. This was a kid who was trying to extend an olive branch and make friends.

“I’ve always thought you were really cool, y’know?” Leon says it, and it startles Raihan out of his silence by making him choke on his own fries that he was picking at. He coughed for a moment until his throat loosened enough to speak.

“Why?” It was all Raihan could ask.  _ Why him? _ Weren’t there plenty of other great trainers he’d fought against? Just because Raihan usually met him on the pitch for the championship match? It wasn’t like the champion wasn’t always challenging other gym leaders and exhibition matches were always on the telly.

Leon shrugged noncommittally, pausing at inhaling his food long enough to at least look thoughtful about it. His hair was getting longer, the ends tickling his collarbone now, and for as much pampering as they must have done to make him presentable for television, his makeup was now flaking away and revealing the breakout underneath. He definitely wasn’t the same ten year old boy who’d fought him five years ago -- this was a kid who looked awkwardly around the near-empty restaurant as if he expected to be interrupted and scolded any second.

“You’re the only opponent that’s given me a run for my money.” Leon said it finally, though somehow it didn’t sound like it was meant to be a brag. It wasn’t a great compliment either, but it was enough to make Raihan laugh. Somehow he couldn’t work up the same anger for the champion that he had at first-- even tentative respect blossoming of a sort.

“I  _ think _ that's a compliment.”

“It is.” Leon lapsed into another thoughtful silence, not quite resuming his eating either, merely poking at the food in front of him. Raihan wondered if he had more to say, or if their entire meal had been intended for the single compliment and congratulations on an amicable loss. “Y’know… There’s an opening in Hammerlocke coming up soon.”

“An opening?”

“You know. To be a leader in training.” Leon offered, quieter. He had Raihan’s attention now, and Raihan leaned a little closer to the other, elbows propped on the table. “You should apply.”

“To be a gym leader?” Raihan quirked an eyebrow, feeling somehow that surely it wasn’t that easy. Gym leaders needed years of experience and a strong team and certainly didn’t fail to even reach the champion’s Charizard in the most embarrassing match of their lives.

“I mean. It isn’t really public yet, but I can put in a good word for you. I think you’d do really well at it. Hammerlocke is the fourth stop on the champion cup tour right now, but if your team is strong-- and it is.” Raihan can’t help but to flush a little at the compliment. “You could wind up being one of the later stops. I bet you could be the 8th one, if you really tried, you show up to the cup every year.”

“So… I could still be second best to the champ, huh?” Raihan frowned, his bitterness seeping into his tone.

“That’s not what I said. It’s not like you won’t get to try and take the championship title-- you know the gym leaders compete every year. It would just…” Leon paused, rubbing his fingers into his messy hair awkwardly. “I thought it would be easier than trying to go through and get all the badges every time. You’d have more time to focus on training your team and getting stronger.”

“I… don’t know what to say…” Raihan wasn’t sure how to feel about this information. Of course he knew that the gym leaders competed every year-- he’d done it every year for five years now.

“I think you should consider it! It would be really cool to battle you when you’re at your full potential!” Leon laughed easily, the challenge clear on his face. Raihan opens his mouth to object-- to say he was sure he wouldn’t make it-- when he’s cut off by the ringing of Leon’s rotom phone. Leon flushes up to his ears and fumbles it out of his pocket to answer. There’s a sharp female voice on the other line, and while Raihan can’t understand what’s being said, he can tell whoever it is, she isn’t happy. He watches a myriad of emotions play out on Leon’s face, ending with him paling as he pulled the phone away from his ear-- call ended.

“You good?”

“Yeah, I uh. I’m sorry, that was the Chairman’s assistant, they’re pretty mad at me because I ran off after the game instead of sticking around to meet with fans and sponsors.” Leon admitted, rubbing at his neck and not meeting Raihan’s eyes. 

Raihan looked at him owlishly for a moment before he barked out laughter-- the champion shirked his work and ran away to have fun like any other teenager might have. Leon laughed along with him, and somehow it smoothed over the last of Raihan’s ruffled feathers.  _ He was just a kid _ .

“I have to get back, sorry I have to run off on you but we should hang out again! This was fun!” Leon gathered up the remnants of his food into his arms, awkwardly shuffling them around until he’s got one free hand to extend to Raihan, smiling brightly at him. “Rivals?”

Raihan took his hand and shook it with a firm squeeze.

“Rivals it is.”

-_-_-

There was a while where Leon and Raihan were on the cusp of a friendship. Raihan had, against his own better judgement, applied for the gym leader position. The stars aligned and he was accepted under the wing of the current gym leader as future heir to the Hammerlocke gym. He’d felt like he was floating since then.

The year went fast, his graduation slid into his training slid into the gym challenge. Since he was still just a gym trainer in practice, he wouldn’t be able to participate in the finals of the championship cup, but he couldn’t bring himself to be too upset about it. However, he did notice the change of the flood of people who arrived for the gym challenge. He was super busy during the day, and it left him ready to collapse in the evenings when he finally was off and done. He knew that a lot of challengers were weeded out in the first three gyms, but even still, Hammerlocke saw a huge amount of trainers make it.

He thought back to what Leon had said-- about how if he tried hard enough when he stepped up as leader that the gym would raise in rank and be pushed back further in the roster of gyms to fight. That sounded ideal-- Raihan was being run ragged with the amount of battling he was doing every day between all of it.

Normally he limped right back home to his apartment, but today there was a clamour all throughout Hammerlocke this evening and the people crowded the streets. Raihan wanted to yell, to be honest, his anger rising at his frustration and want to just go home and have a lie down, and it seemed like everyone and their entire family had decided to linger along his route home.

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Raihan’s ears perked up, knowing that voice.  _ Oh _ , that explained a lot. Raihan weaved his way through the crowd, some stepping aside for him and others glaring at him as he pushed past, uncaring.

“Ah! Raihan!” Leon spotted Raihan in his crowd-- though it wasn’t like he was particularly hard to spot with as tall as he was. Leon waved him forward, that same smile creasing his lips.

“Should’ve figured that if someone was causing trouble it’d be you.” Raihan laughed, finally able to stand next to the leader who was beaming up at him. “You’ve heard the news?”

“Of course I have!” Leon stepped forward with spread arms, leaning in and hugging Raihan loosely but warmly, the gym leader in training dwarfing the reigning champion. Raihan reciprocated, feeling like his limbs were much lighter now that he’d seen his friend and had been reinvigorated. Leon stepped back, a proud twinkling in his eye that made him look almost fatherly in Raihan’s opinion. He certainly was starting to grow into himself at least.

They’d managed to cut out little swaths of time for one another, and though they were few and far between, Raihan couldn’t help but to preen a little bit that he seemed to be the only person who’d made the champion get caught guffawing in laughter by the media. Raihan was blossoming in this new environment, getting stronger and smarter and more confident.

Not to mention he was starting to get attention, and not just from the champion. He would regularly post selfies after his training and he was starting to get pretty popular online, and he was starting to have his own little following.

It only grew once he finally did step up and take the mantle of the the Hammerlocke gym, and was dubbed “the dragon tamer” almost immediately following the ceremony, and the hashtag started trending. (Even the champion himself had congratulated him publicly and tagged him in it, and with Leon’s dad-like handling of social media, it had been a compliment of the highest caliber.)

He felt good. It felt right. All he needed now was to win that championship title from his rival and life would be perfect.

-_-_-

And then it was a wreck. Suddenly his years long routine was interrupted again, thrown into disarray when he was 24. When he watched from the sidelines with bated breath as the hit landed, and Leon’s Charizard wobbled, and then the arena shook as the outrush of dynamax energy poured over them as Charizard collapsed. Raihan was afraid that Leon would collapse himself as he swayed on his own feet-- was certainly still not in full health yet.

Leon stood open mouthed for a moment, and then Raihan’s heart wrenched in his own chest as he watched his now-defeated rival pull his snapback down to cover his face. Leon never, never let the media see him cry, Raihan knew, but he could tell by the way that his shoulders shook that he was schooling his expression for the moment, and he was able to move again. He threw his cap into the air and thanked the crowd like he hadn’t just lost a career that he’d spent 12 years building, the way a real champion would.

Leon had more grace about it than Raihan could ever have imagined that he’d have-- having already lost to the upstart new champion, Raihan knew they were strong, but also knew Leon was  _ unbeatable _ .

Leon had kept a straight face all day, and Raihan had too for as shocked as he was, and it wasn’t until late into the night that it seemed to hit him. It wasn’t until they were sitting on Raihan’s couch, trying to play a competitive fighting game per Leon’s request, and Raihan was startled out of his focus by the sound of his best friend’s strangled sobs.

Leon fumbled the controller, and Raihan’s heart sank for the second time that day as he pulled Leon into his arms and held him while he cried. It wasn’t a pretty cry, it was 12 years of sentiment and comfort and familiarity all taken away from Leon in a matter of hours. It was Leon being lost, now, and without the title of Champion he wasn’t sure who he was anymore. So Raihan soothed him as best as he could.

“You’re Leon-- my best friend and my rival. You’re one of the best trainers in all of Galar, and you’re an inspiration for so many young trainers.” Raihan assured, hands threaded into soft purple hair and just holding. Leon needed something solid, and it was the least that Raihan could offer him after years of rivalry and competition and friendship.

And when Leon fell asleep out of exhaustion, curled up against Raihan as the looping music of their abandoned game played in the background was when several realizations hit Raihan like a truck.

He didn’t want to be the champion. At least, that wasn’t what was important to him now-- of course he wanted the crown. That could come sooner or later-- it was no longer something he needed to call attention to himself-- it was just a title.

He was in love with his best friend. He was in love with his best friend and had been for years. He’d been in love with Leon when he was helping to carry him away from the battle with Eternatus and to the nearest doctor, a crying wreck at the fear of losing the other half of the duo that he’d become so familiar with. The person who’d proven him wrong so many times, who’d encouraged him to raise himself up, and had always been waiting for him on the other side of everything with a smile.

It was hard not to be in love with him when the first sight he was greeted with when he visited the hospital was that smile.

-_-_-

Leon hadn’t taken long to put his feet back underneath him, and Raihan expected nothing less of him. It had taken some time, sitting with the two of them just thinking and trying to figure out what Leon wanted to be now that he was free of the title of champion. Raihan wanted to see him thrive the way that he had when Leon had encouraged him to become a gym leader.

He hadn’t dared to voice his feelings yet-- not while Leon was vulnerable. He wanted to have Leon at his full vibrancy, healthy and smiling and sure of himself, and if it meant waiting days or months or years then he would wait.

So Leon had laid it out for him-- laid bare his dream of wanting to help Galar be the strongest region in the world. Wanting to spend his time teaching and helping and encouraging. It made sense-- Leon had always been that way. Raihan knew firsthand, Leon was always there to keep supporting him when he felt like he’d fall.

“So do that.”

“Do what?”

“Make a place to teach people. And battle. Make a place where you can do what you want.” Raihan shrugged. It made sense to him.

“Just… just a place to battle?”

“Well, yeah. Why not? You love doing it, you’re good at it. Just make a place to have trainers test themselves and give themselves something to strive for.”

“Rai! That’s it!” Leon jolted up in his seat, that infectious smile creeped onto his lips. Raihan was already along for the ride, no matter where it led Leon he wanted to follow. He still had a score to settle after all.

Once he was well, and ok. Once Raihan was able to climb and stand on level ground with Leon, he would risk it all. Raihan had to take the risk. Leon had given him the strength to stand on his own two feet and the courage to keep moving when he’d felt like he was lost, and Raihan wanted to be a part of that for as long as he would have him.

It was a risk, but he wanted to make sure Leon was clear on how Raihan felt. So when he won was when he’d do it, he’d walk across the pitch or floor or alleyway or wherever the battle happened and he’d kiss him. The details didn’t matter right now. What mattered right now was that Leon had that look like he had a plan and wanted to dive right in, and Raihan couldn’t be more excited to get to work.

-_-_-

Raihan swallowed thickly, walking forward slowly toward Leon. Instead of the lost look that Leon had given the new champion, he was beaming at Raihan. Like he couldn’t be more excited that he’d won even though it had meant his own loss.

Raihan knew this was the moment, and his whole mind and body were still screaming with adrenaline and anxiety. His hands were shaking as he lifted them, now just a pace away from his rival. This certainly wasn’t his first kiss, but his stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots as he looked at him. Leon seemed to radiate warmth that made Raihan feel a bit like he was going to melt into a puddle on the floor of the battle tower and seep through the cracks in the elevator shaft.

Raihan reached out, taking Leon’s extended hand.

And instead of shaking his hand, he pulled Leon forward and into a tight hug, squeezing Leon like he was afraid that he’d slip through his fingers, and let out a strangled noise as he shook. He couldn’t kiss him, this time he was a mess. He won, and it should have felt amazing. It did feel amazing, but it also felt like an interruption to their established status quo. Leon squeezed him back just as tightly, and Raihan  _ ached _ . 

It had taken 14 years of chasing and climbing, but they were finally on level ground. They were finally equal, and it was everything he’d ever wanted and nothing all at once and it was  _ overwhelming. _ There was absolutely no way that he could have made good on his promise in that moment.

-_-_-

Raihan sighed to himself, stretching. His body still felt like it was jittering and it still felt surreal, but a shower had helped massively to let him think. He sat on the bench, half dressed and silent as he thought about it.

“Raihan!”

He glanced over his shoulder as Leon approached, still in suit and cravat and all despite looking disheveled. Raihan couldn’t help the way that the easy smile crept onto his face.

“Sorry, I got caught up in interviews.” Leon looked sheepish, fiddling with the snapback in his hands.

“As always, champ. Some things never change.” Raihan’s heart danced in his chest as Leon laughed.

“You left before I could give it to you. I've got something for you.” Leon shifted on his feet, and Raihan eyed the snapback in his hand, one hand still hidden behind it as he fidgeted. It had piqued his curiosity.

“A gift huh?” Raihan probed, signalling toward the hat. Leon nodded, lingering for a moment more before revealing his hand.

Raihan barely had the time to process that Leon’s hand was empty before it had lifted to cradle his cheek and there was the soft press of lips against his own. Raihan made a noise that wasn’t very dignified, but snapped his eyes closed and caught hold of Leon’s cravat to keep him in place. It felt like sunshine on his face, and the cologne that Leon wore made Raihan’s head spin.

Raihan smiled against the other’s mouth, keeping the kiss chaste for a moment before he pulled away and nudge the other’s forehead with his own. He feels like he’s been infected with that smile again, because he can’t stop smiling and he’s feeling it in his cheeks.

“Was that a challenge?” Raihan was laughing.

“Have to make sure I’m still your number one somehow.”


End file.
